Republicans Lead Democrats in Early Voting

The so-called “Blue Wave” of Democratic voting intensity in Florida hasn’t been seen yet. Republicans are returning more mail-in ballots than Democrats in the first couple of weeks of the primary election season. More than 260,000 Floridians have voted, so far, according to figures released Monday by the Florida Division of Elections.

With nearly 2.5 million ballots sent out, the state reported that Republicans had returned 120,939 ballots, compared to 98,493 by Democrats. Another 38,728 ballots have been completed by people without party affiliations and 1,129 by people registered with third parties. Of the remaining ballots that have been requested, 925,192 have been sent to Democrats, 836,223 to Republicans, 446,124 to independents and 9,965 to third-party voters. The Division of Elections reported that Lee, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have each had more than 24,000 ballots returned, with Republican ballot returns outpacing Democratic ballots. The last day for voters to request vote-by-mail ballots is Aug. 22, and the last day for supervisors to send out the ballots is Aug. 24. Voters can also pick up vote-by-mail ballots from local election supervisors up to the day before the election.

There’s also an easy way to keep up with voting totals from the website www.FloridaTurnout.com, sponsored by CateCom and Proxeme, Florida-based digital communication companies.